History: Relish it; preserve it

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fosters.com

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Posted Oct. 22, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Posted Oct. 22, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Like many of our readers, come the wee hours of Monday morning we catch up on what our reporters have been covering over the weekend. Sometimes our search is for editorial ideas and sometimes just to keep informed.

On the dawn of this workweek something about the headline “Revolutionary War comes alive in Rollinsford” and the accompanying photo caught our attention, spurring us to offer some editorial ponderings.

In short, we thought: How lucky we are to live in a region of the country that revels in its history.

In this particular case, one of our writers, Ron Cole, spent time covering a Revolutionary War re-enactment, held at Rollinsford’s Colonel Paul Wentworth House. Not only were scenes from a muster recreated, but they were done so in sight of a home built in 1701 and preserved for posterity.

What is also impressive about this past weekend’s events is the attention to detail. Re-enactors spend great amounts of time getting it right, from the scenes they re-enact to the period dress.

But such an appreciation and respect for history is not unique to Rollinsford. Encampments at Fort Foster, across the border in York, Maine, also regularly pay tribute to the past.

In Dover, we find the Woodman Institute Museum and its Garrison House, preserved from our region’s Colonial times. To climb the narrow stairs and peer from small slits in the shutters is to imagine settlers waiting in fear with muskets at the ready.

In Durham, a trip back through local history can be taken by examining the murals high above the service counter at the post office. They were painted more than a half century ago and were designed to reflect the struggles that came with settling the community.

In Portsmouth, much effort went into fighting off the ravages of Urban Renewal, a notion promoted in the 1960s that nearly condemned much of Portsmouth’s history to the trash heap. Thankfully, a group of local residents mounted an effort which resulted in the creation of the Strawbery Banke Museum and preserved a segment of Colonial history.

To many who have grown up in the Seacoast, such history might seem a bit “ho-hum.” But travel the country were “new” is idolized with no sense of the past and you begin to appreciate living in New England and the Seacoast.

In his play, “The Tempest,” William Shakespeare introduced the phrase “What’s past is prologue.” In the bard’s context this meant the past had built the path to future action.

Philosopher and essayist George Santayana was more demanding when he wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

American humorist Mark Twain put it another way: “For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.”

In closing out his story about the Revolutionary War re-enactment, Cole quoted Dover attorney Cathy Berube who arrived with daughter.

“This is a wonderful, informative place,” said Berube.

Yes it is. And so is living in the Seacoast where an awareness of history is a prized possession which many people work long and hard to preserve.

Kudos to them and their efforts

P.S. For a bit of old-time fun, Colonel Paul Wentworth House will be the site of an Old Fashioned Halloween on Saturday, Oct. 26, 5-7:30 p.m. For details, visit http://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/